AA E-Zine Editorial Note: The Republican proposal called for the elimination of guaranteed graduate student loans, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), CPB (PBS - Sesame Street) and a host of other cuts, none of which would be necessary if instead, the Bush tax cuts for America's wealthiest 1% were eliminated.

Cuts to Graduate Students Proposed
as Savings to Pay for Hurricane Costs
Written by: Barmak Nassirian
American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers
Published: 09/28/2005
http://www.aacrao.org/transcript/index.cfm?fuseaction=show_view&doc_id=2877

With costs of federal efforts associated with hurricane Rita still uncertain, concern about the budgetary impact of disaster spending is mounting in Congress. Federal relief and rebuilding costs for hurricane Katrina already top $70.7 billion, with some $6 billion in tax relief (P.L. 109-73) and $62.3 billion in two emergency appropriations bills (P.L. 109-61 and P.L. 109-62) enacted on September 2 and 8. Of the $62.3 billion directly appropriated by Congress to date, some $44 billion remain available in federal disaster relief funds.

In addition to the larger expenditures, a series of smaller targeted provisions have been enacted and others are moving through the legislative process. On Sept. 21, President Bush signed both the Pell Grant Hurricane and Disaster Relief Act (H.R. 3169) and the Student Grant Hurricane and Disaster Relief Act (H.R. 3668). These bills allow the Secretary of Education to waive regulations requiring the return of federal student aid funds to students who are forced to withdraw from classes because of Hurricane Katrina. On September 16, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) issued a press release outlining $1.9 billion in proposed education relief, most of it going to the K-12 sector. Only about $227 million of the $1.9 billion would be directed at colleges and universities, with most of it going to help students who have been displaced because their institution has closed. Very little funding has thus far been designated for reconstruction or repair of campus facilities.

In a clear parting of ways with their Mississippi neighbors, Louisiana Senators Mary Landrieu (D) and David Vitter (R), introduced a package (S. 1766 and S. 1767) that would direct $250 billion in federal funding for rebuilding effort in the state. The Mississippi political leadership—which includes Gov. Haley Barbour (a former GOP national party chairman), and Republican Senators Thad Cochran (Chairman of Senate Appropriations Committee) and Trent Lott (former Senate Majority Leader)—is also certain to push for significant federal expenditures for that state, albeit in a less public manner. Beyond the costs of Katrina, significant new resources will be needed to assist with clean-up after hurricane Rita, whose impact on Texas is already estimated by Governor Rick Perry to exceed $8 billion.

As the size and scope of hurricane costs begin to sink in, fiscal conservatives in Congress are gearing up to push for offsets. On September 21, the Republican Study Committee (RSC), representing fiscally conservative members of the GOP in the House, launched “Operation Offset” to press for cuts to various federal programs to offset the costs of recovery. The detailed list of proposed cuts in the RSC package include the elimination of interest subsidy for student loans for graduate students, a one-year delay in implementation of the new Medicare drug benefit, and the repeal of “earmarks” (specific projects in members’ districts written into the law) in the recently adopted transportation bill. While these proposals are unlikely to be adopted, pressure is clearly building in favor of budget cuts. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) has asked Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg (R-NH) to convene a meeting of Republican Senators to discuss how hurricane costs might be offset, and called on the President to propose a list of possible program cuts for congressional review. Democrats have weighed in with their demand that before it contemplates any cuts to federal spending programs, Congress should reject the nearly $70 billion in tax cuts embedded in the 2006 budget agreement (H Con Res 95). The budget choices ahead for Congress and the Administration may include such extreme measures as across-the-board cuts, entitlement reform, impoundment of federal funds already appropriated, and tax changes.

Defunding the CPB Would Be a Disaster
http://www.tvweek.com/article.cms?articleId=28761
Editorial
September 26, 2005

A study report last week by some Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives citing the mounting cost of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy as a reason to cut all funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting-and thus for public television and radio-is a thinly veiled effort to push a conservative agenda that has nothing to do with the storm or its aftermath. We urge federal lawmakers, with support from everyone who values public broadcasting, to rally and stop this effort to use the disaster as an excuse to eliminate public support for noncommercial television.

This move is as short-sighted as the government's decision last year not to spend what was needed to shore up the levees around New Orleans. Like the water behind those levees, public television is a reservoir of programming, information, news and ideas that needs to be maintained to preserve the cultural and social health of our nation. To weaken the financial underpinnings of public TV is to risk losing this valued service which, for the most part, will not and cannot be replaced by commercial broadcasting.

It's bad enough that the Republicans have saddled the CPB with administrators like board Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson, whose term is about to expire, who are more about politics than public-spirited broadcasting. What we will remember from Mr. Tomlinson's time in office is the negative image he brought to the CPB, the investigations his questionable activities spawned and his blatant efforts to politicize or eliminate news coverage on public TV. Instead of being an advocate for what is best in public TV, he was a nitpicker who demoralized many of the dedicated, hard-working, mostly underpaid people who have helped make public TV a real alternative to commercial TV. It certainly wasn't because of efforts by Mr. Tomlinson that the Emmy for outstanding miniseries last week went to PBS's "The Lost Prince." If those pushing the elimination of funding for CPB had their way, that show and similar quality programming would never have made it to air.

It is up to the politicians who didn't provide adequate funds to maintain the New Orleans levees, who have no sensible plan to pay for the war in Iraq and who think they can spend on domestic reconstruction without raising taxes to find a way out of this budget crunch. Eliminating the funding for public TV would only add to the consequences of a natural disaster that has been compounded by manmade mistakes.

When the Gulf Coast is rebuilt, there will still be children who need "Sesame Street," viewers who deserve programs like "The Lost Prince" on Masterpiece Theatre, and citizens who have a right to news without any political agenda.